August Bank Holiday weekend

Recent blogs indicate that catches at the lake are relatively modest, though the advantage of this is that any of our regular sites can be operated by only one ringer. With reasonable weather forecast for the Bank Holiday, several members took advantage of this, starting with Jeremy at the jetty on Fri 28th. Although his session had to be curtailed when another rain band arrived, he managed a catch of 27 + (2), the highlight of which was the first (and probably only) Grasshopper Warbler of the year - Jeremy's "target species". On Sat, George was in rb2, and unfortunately, the tape system hadn't come on, so the "Acro" catch was poor. A quick switch to Blackcap/Chiffchaff song however, boosted the catch to a respectable 35 + (9), the best of which was a fine young male Redstart. At the same time, Andy and Jerry were undertaking the final CES of the year, and after a slow first half, the second half improved for a session total of 23 + (13). A family group of four Coal Tit was a nice surprise, as we usually catch them at the feeders (and our highest day catch is only six).

Grasshopper Warbler

1st summer Male Redstart

Goldcrest

On Sun, Alan J and Peter tried a first taping session in the garden which despite almost perfect conditions only produced an average 18 + (9). Over half the total catch were Chiffchaff and with them being abundant and seemingly no other migrants around, Peter speculated that everything else had continued its migration before the weather front came through in the early afternoon. Interesting Mammalian sightings included an obvious Hedgehog trail in the dew across the lawns of the garden and later two sightings of a decent sized Hedgehog foraging in the undergrowth a couple of hundred metres from the garden right next to one of the net lanes in the scrub. Sunday also saw the opening of the brand new net lane in our garden scrub area, it didn't have a huge catch given the general quietness of the day but certainly appears to have great potential as the autumn continues.

Heavy overnight rain prompted Carlton to have a delayed start on Mon, but unfortunately, on his arrival, the weather was still too wet for a ringing session. The Bank Holiday period produced a total of 103 + (33) comprising -
Sand Martin 1
Wren 3 + (2)
Dunnock 1
Robin 4 + (6)
Redstart 1
Blackbird 1 + (1)
Grasshopper Warbler 1
Sedge Warbler 5
Reed Warbler 17 + (4)
Blackcap 12 + (1)
Willow Warbler 4
Chiffchaff 34 + (5)
Goldcrest 2
Long-tailed Tit 1 + (3)
Coal Tit 4
Blue Tit 4 + (4)
Great Tit (2)
Treecreeper 2 + (2)
Greenfinch 2
Bullfinch 3 + (3)

In August, we only ringed a modest 504 birds (it is unusual for the August total to be lower than July), and the YTD becomes 1913.  On a positive note, the Chiffchaff total (currently 158) is looking to become our second highest.